Confederate Flag defender, political activist, former President of
the Asheville chapter of the NAACP and 52-year-old black man, H.K.
Edgerton was recently accosted by two black men while standing by his
confederate flag in front of Asheville High School. Though he was
appalled by the alleged violent actions of 19-year-old high school
drop-out Andre Dewayne and 32-year-old Kevin Miller, he concedes, "I
know and understand their pain because they've been lied to for so
long. A lot of people know nothing about that time in history."

Describing the event, Edgerton recalls, "A man approached me quickly
and when he got a foot away from me, he lunged at me, tried to grab
my flag, spit on me, spit on my flag, bent my flag pole. Then another
man, who was older, came. I thought he was going to stop him, but he
joined in, striking and spitting on me and bending my flag even
more." Edgerton said the incident left lingering injuries to his
shoulder.

Though Edgerton empathizes with the anguish of the two men he
asserts, "You have to know how to conduct yourselves. And give a man
a chance to speak. Many people have heckled me and cursed at me. When
giving speeches I've had blacks heckle me and they had to be removed
in Columbia and Charleston, but never has anyone accosted me or my
flag. It is my 1st amendment right to take a stand, and you must not
violate my right to do so."

Edgerton blames the media and the educational system for creating the
perception that exists today regarding southern history. "This is a
continuation about the lies of the Christian southern white folks
during the Civil War. African Americans in this country don't know a
thing about that war and that time. They see that flag and someone
says slavery and it all falls apart and they think of Southern
Christian white folks as being evil."

"We can't let the stars and stripes get away that easy. Never were
the stars and bars flag flown over a slave ship. And you want to know
why? Because it's a Christian Battle Flag that was emulated after St.
Andrew, Jesus Christ's first disciple. In 69 A.D. in Petro, Greece --
now a part of Russia -- St. Andrew was jailed because of his teaching
and preaching of Jesus Christ, his Lord and Master, and he was told
he was going to be crucified on the cross. He begged that persecutor
not to nail him to that Latin cross in the shape of "T" because he
was not worthy of being punished the way Jesus Christ had been
nailed. So he begged to be tied in an X-shape to the cross and the
persecutor did what he asked him to. That X is a Greek symbol to CH,
the first two letters in Christ's name. When St. Andrew was on the
cross he continued his teaching of Christ and all the folks started
believing him and for three days he remained on that cross teaching
and after three days they begged the persecutor to take him down and
when he did, St. Andrew came down off that cross and died, and he
became a martyr and a saint.

"When (Civil War Confederate ) General Beaureguard decided they
needed another flag, he chose the cross of St. Andrew for these
reasons. Most Southerners, in fact, did not want to do away with the
stars and stripes because they didn't feel they had done anything
wrong. They thought it was the north who was eradicating the
Constitution.

"And as for President Lincoln, our American hero, who signed the
Emancipation Proclamation. In march of 1861 Abraham Lincoln called
all those black leaders in his office and he told them -- Even if I
set you free you'll be inferior. You need to get out of the country
because I will colonize you. Lincoln proposed the 13th Amendment,
being the only President ever to do so. That amendment said Congress
would never have the power to interrupt an institution of state. He
told the southerners they could keep the slaves if they paid the
North a 42% tariff. The South agreed to a 10% tariff but not 42%. So,
who I am supposed to blame the institution of slavery on?

"At that time, one of the richest men in the world, John D. Rothchild
told his family to put all their money into the Confederacy and
described Lincoln as a crook. He said the slaves in the south were
better off than the slaves in the north who had to work for next to
nothing in the cotton mills.

"The attack on the Confederacy doesn't get the attention it deserves.
These blacks today have no idea what took place back then. (Blacks)
earned a place of dignity in that war. If it wasn't for Africans that
war would have lasted four days, not four years. We made all of the
implements of war, we fought, we participated -- not one slave
insurrection happened during that period of time. They did not have
whips and guns forcing them to be there. God and his infinite wisdom
brought these people here. He brought about a love between master and
slave that has never happened before. If you search this empirically
then you will know the only one who cared about the African was the
man in the south. But we don't want to face that.

"Bill Clinton's apology to (the black race) doesn't mean a thing to
me. If Bill Clinton was any kind of a man he would march right down
to the Education Secretary and demand that we start telling the truth
to all about our history. If there are any apologies to be given, it
is me. I need to apologize for walking away from the Christians in
the South because I was lied to. Even the NAACP is not a black run
operation. The national board is run by white liberals and Jews and I
question their motives.

"Those who know their history know that we walked away from the war
with dignity. But we took the loyalty we gave to the white man and
started believing the lies of the North and now people are believing
this madness. But even if you pull this flag from every flag pole and
stand in the south you can't pull it from the hearts of the
Christians in the south. If you speak to any blacks in the south my
age or older you will find out that most of them had kinship to
Confederate Veterans. The more who search their backbone will find
out they were a part of this. They want to think they were beaten
into this. Wrong. That's not how it happened.

"Times have changed. In the old south a young man would have never
approached an old gray-haired man like myself. We've gotten away from
that. Had we been left alone by the northern carpet-baggers, we would
be better off.

"Now I have to watch the Cuban flag flying in land we used to have
and know that they can live in Florida without ever speaking English.
And I have to hear John Rocker get off the subway in New York and not
even know where he is. Well, come get me John Rocker because I don't
know where we are either and I want to know.

"My fight for my people continues. In all my speeches, I say -- Don't
hurt my people, forgive them. We just don't know. -- I grew up with
the same lies, claiming that Lincoln liberated and saved me. What a
crock. All we have to do is think about this thing and search out the
truth. I would encourage all my African-American friends to go to
Southern Confederate Veterans' meetings and they will be greeted
open-armed. The only day we will truly be free is when H.K. Edgerton
walks out his door and every African-American is holding a
Confederate Flag and I will say one thing - Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Praise God, Hallelujah.

"Not one time did Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. put down the
Confederate Flag. He wanted blacks and whites to sit and eat
together. I asked Dr. Young, one of King's closest friends, what his
feelings were about that flag. He said, Leave it alone. Let's do
something about the things we can do something about, like our
children selling drugs on the street. King could never have brought
us all together the way he did if he had put down the (Confederate)
Flag.

"At first, I was confused by the NAACP putting down the flag, but
they just don't know. I just don't want my people lied to. I hate to
see them led down the path of hate. They're in the wrong ball game.
There was a Machiavellian view in the North - they are different from
the south. The bottom line is, if I would have had a choice back then
I would have stayed in the South. If the Southern man set a man free
he gave them land and a home. The North did not give them anything.
You don't set a man free in the woods without anything.

"But people don't realize this. One time when I was holding the stars
and bars on the street, a black man with dreadlocks told me what I
was doing was wrong, and then he called to his white girlfriend and
their child across the street. Now, tell me that man is not confused.

"It was the wealthy African leaders who sold the poorer Africans to
the slave traders. Blacks want to speak of their African heritage,
when it was their heritage who sold them out to slavery. Furthermore,
it is not uncommon for blacks today to follow the Muslim religion,
and Muslims practice slavery today. But no one wants to talk about
that."